Thursday, December 03, 2009

AZ's expensive antidepressant

Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca today spent up to $1.2 billion (£722 million) on what it hopes will be the next worldwide anti-depressant blockbuster.

The announcement is the biggest deal of the year for Britain's second-largest pharma firm, with AstraZeneca paying biotech specialist Targacept $200 million up front for the treatment, with a further $540 million if it passes trials and comes to market.

It will then pay out another $500 million “if specified sales milestones are achieved”. Astra added it will also pay the firm stepped “double-digit” royalties on net sales worldwide.

AstraZeneca already has a foothold in the mental health market. Its blockbuster antipsychotic drug Seroquel, which is mainly used by schizophrenics, contributed sales of $4.45 billion last year, second only to heartburn treatment Nexium.

But it has bought the new treatment, currently named TC-5214, to gain a greater share of the lucre available from anti-depression drugs.

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